The Gardener
by Latent Lullaby
Summary: Kagome moves into her grandpa's old house in a forest after her mothers death, only to find that there's a goldeneyed gardener living there too. And it gets complicated from there on out... AU INUKAG Chapter 1 currently being rewritten by next update.
1. Chapter 1

The gardener

Chapter 1

By Zeldagurl

(Begin)

"Miss…?" A young woman sat slumped in the back of a taxi, sleeping quietly when the unkempt driver looked back and called to her softly. Her eyes fluttered open slowly, allowing the woman to gain some awareness to her surroundings.

"Miss… We're here." He said gently as she sat up, rubbing her eyes childishly.

"Thanks" She said quietly as she reached into her purse to pay the man's fare. He smiled reassuringly and took the money, nodding in thanks as she gathered her things and stepped out of the car.

As the taxi drove off, she stood uncertainly in front of a large forest that seemed to have no sure boundary or point of civilization. She sighed and grabbed her small rolling bag and stepped onto the path that led into the forest.

Her name was kagome Higurashi, and she had just come from a funeral far away in Tokyo. No, this forest wasn't her home; her home was back in Tokyo. She belonged to a place of sacred worship; she was the one who was supposed to be taking care of it.

But mom hadn't told her and Souta about her debt to the bank before she died; and she had worked herself to death just trying to make ends meet. The bank had taken everything away, and the only thing she was left with was an old property of her grandpa's. But he had died seven years ago, and kagome knew the place was probably in severe disrepair.

But she would rather live on her own than have to live with her uncle, who seemed to hate both her and Souta, but had begrudgingly agreed to take Souta. Kagome was eighteen, so she wasn't required to live with an adult, and for that, she was thankful.

As soon as she got enough money, she would get Souta out of there and support the both of them. Then it wouldn't be so hard, Kagome didn't want to lose the only real family she had left.

As kagome moved deeper into the forest, the path became more and more rugged, and hard to handle. She found it hard to even keep her balance and in a moment of bitter humor, felt sorry for her faithful little bag.

Kagome had only seen pictures of the house, and really wasn't even sure if she was going the right way. But sure enough, the trees began to clear and diminish into groves of plants and bushes. At first, kagome didn't even notice anything weird about what she was walking through, mostly because her mind was on a few other things. But as a group of tomatoes caught her eye, kagome began to wonder if this place was really as uninhabited as people thought.

She stopped and looked down at one plant in particular, noticing that it was tied to a stake for support.

"That's weird…" She said aloud. She could understand if it was just a bunch of wild tomatoes, but these looked like they were being cared for. She raised an eyebrow and sighed, it was probably some hobo, no worries; she would just sleep with a bat under her pillow. That is, if grandpa had even owned a bat in his long life, which she doubted.

She continued walking, looking ahead through the dense humid air of the forest to where ever the house was supposed to be. And soon enough, it appeared in the distance, looking like more of a hopeless case than she might have hoped for.

The windows were boarded up and the paint was peeling, among other things that kagome was sure she didn't want to know about. But no matter the damage weather had done to the poor house, it was still where kagome was going to be staying for a while, at least…

So with that clear ideal in her mind, kagome walked bravely to the house, and opened the door slowly to see what she was up against. Peeking inside, she was pleasantly surprised when she found that it wasn't as bad as she was expecting it to be.

Everything was still in kind of okay shape, and all the furniture was covered with plastic coverings, so they could be salvaged. She rolled her bag in, and left it at the entrance, wanting to see the rest of the old house.

She entered each room, examining the shape, and touching things that caused her memory to stir. She smiled and touched the base of a picture of her and Souta and mom; it was of the summer festival when she had been eleven.

A little girl smiled out from the picture, happy… She was surrounded by the three people she loved most in the world; her mom, brother and grandpa. Kagome remembered how it felt, she remembered her mother's smile so brilliantly…

She felt tears well up in her eyes, as well as some unwanted emotions that she had yet to deal with; and turned away from the picture, placing it down so that the little girl could be seen no more…

(switch)

Her day had been severely overwhelming, and by night fall, kagome was beginning to feel its effects and decided to find some bed to crawl into and sleep for a while. She had found a golf club and carried it with her to the dusty old bedroom that she had liked earlier. She had brought a small lamp that she hooked up to the main electricity and had settled for that since she knew she couldn't do anything to repair the house until she went to the neighboring town.

She got into bed, snuggling into the covers that she had freshly beaten the dust out of; and closed her eyes, hoping to fall into a dreamless sleep.

But she wasn't able to sleep, even though she was very tired; her mind was moving to fast to be able to rest now. She laid there, thinking about her mother and trying not to cry about her.

It had only been a day, and already she missed her mother insanely; she wanted to hear her comforting voice just once more. The voice that had sung her to sleep as a child, and had advised her during her teen years.

The fact was that she would never see her mother again; no matter how hard she tried to talk to her mom, there wouldn't be anyone there who was listening…

All of the sudden, she heard a creak in the floor, along with quiet footsteps coming toward her. She froze in her bed, her grip tightening around the golf club in her hand. She opened her eyes a slight bit and focused on the figure standing before her bed.

The moonlight filtered across him, and revealed limited parts that identified that he was indeed a man. He wore no shirt, and had only raggedy shorts on, as far as kagome could tell. Two golden eyes studied her quietly, as she laid quietly, waiting for the right time to strike.

Already her mind was accusing her of being stupid enough to think that a forest wouldn't be full of dirty men who just waited for little girls like her to stumble into their grasp. She internally squeaked when the figure knelt down and reached out to touch the hair on the top of her head.

As fast as she could, she swung out the golf club, hitting him in the stomach. He fell with a surprised yelp to the floor, reaching out a hand to support himself while the other clutched his stomach. He looked down at his stomach to make sure he wasn't too severely hurt and then looked up at her with an angry look in his eyes.

"What the hell was that for!" Kagome whimpered and flattened herself against the wall, trying to get as far away from him as possible. She had inconveniently dropped the golf club on the floor, and now lacked a weapon to defend herself.

"Get away from me! Leave me alone, you pervert!" She screeched, closing her eyes and shielding her face with her hands.

She heard him get up, grunting as he straightened himself to a standing position. She cracked an eye open and squeaked as he dropped the golf club on the bed and began to walk away.

"I'm no pervert." He said loud enough so that she could hear him. She relaxed slightly and glared with as much nerve as she could gather up within herself.

"Then why were you looking at me like that?" She snapped at him, grabbing the golf club again and brandishing it at him.

"I don't need to explain myself to a complete stranger!" He growled defensively as he turned toward her again, bristling in anger.

"Well you're in my house aren't you?" She answered, her courage growing with each word that was exchanged between them.

"You own this dump?" He asked quizzically, a cruel sense of amusement in his voice as his anger seemed to evaporate. She set her mouth angrily, amazed that he had the nerve to even ask a question like that.

"Whatever…" He growled, looking back at her once more before walking through the door.

"I'm the only night visitor you'll be getting, you can be sure of that." And with that, he was gone from sight. She wanted to call out to him, if anything to tell him off again. But then, it WAS the middle of the night, and he WAS a complete stranger.

She had been barely able to make out his features; all which kept burning her mind. Those invigorating golden eyes… She looked reproachfully at the door, hugging her knees and thinking. If he hadn't been a regular pervert, than what was it he had wanted, wandering into her bedroom like that?

Was he the one who had put the stakes in to support the tomatoes? She sighed, knowing that she wouldn't be able to sleep at all after this anyway, so she sat back to think, and to wonder about the mysterious man who was obviously living here…

If that was the truth at all…

Authors note: Ah! Chapter 1 of the gardener! Yes, I actually got the idea for this story during school, and I've been planning it ever since. This IS a multiple chapter story, so you guys will have to wait a few days for the next chapter, which will be just as long (Maybe longer). All I know, is that I will be updating cast in stone with the epilogue very soon. Till then, please enjoy this new story.


	2. Chapter 2

The Gardener

By Zeldagurl

Chapter 2

Authors note:Ohiyo Minna-san! Greetings from a much less over heated authoress! A mighty storm swept through my town last night, and with it, 70 degree weather! So I'm no longer confined to the only room in the house with air conditioning. (Not that the heat stopped me from marching to borders to buy movie 4)

Money's beginning to get tight as it always does in the fall. The reason why, is that, a million things come out in the fall, and plus almost all my friends have birthdays in the fall. So by November, I'm broke!!

Maybe it's better that way, since Inuyasha is starting to wind-down here in the states. Oh... I'll be so sad when I have no more Inuyasha to surprise me every time a new episode airs.

Oh well... I'll have to start putting my money towards clothes for once. Either that, or become a hermit with a computer... (Tough choice)

Anyway, thanks for your feedback for chapter 1, I'm glad that so many people liked it. It's not going to be so much action as the strange sort of chemistry Inuyasha and Kagome have, and fluff! I'm terrible at action scenes, so I'll keep that kind of stuff for Dancing with the devil (My other story). I have a general idea where I want to go with this, but I still have a little plot development to work on. If there's anything you guys want included in the story, then please let me know. Right now I have room to put in a lot of stuff, including if you guys would like kouga in here...

I'm also thinking of putting in meaningful song lyrics at the end of the chapters, or at least song lyrics that I feel reflect me, so let me know if you guys would like that, kay?

Well, without more ado (dodges flying computer speakers)

Enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha and Kagome... If I did, then they'd be together already damn it!

(Begin)

Kagome opened her eyes blearily, being blinded by the sun streaming in through the curtainless window. She tried to turn over and get back to sleep, as she usually did when the light of the morning woke her up, but as she tried to turn, she was struck with severe pain in her lower back.

She winced in pain and fell flat on her back, now completely awake from both the pain and the light. She groaned, glaring uselessly on the bed beneath her.

Lifting herself off the bed provided to be a challenge, and after cursing her grandfather's disdain for anything newer than 1970, she slowly staggered her way out the bedroom door. Her pain quickly subsided as she took in the state of the house.

She was immediately overwhelmed by the amount of work she had left to do. The work she had done yesterday seemed to have barely scratched the surface of what she still had left to do.

Her plan for this house had included bringing everything that she would need here, including appliances, bug zappers and cleaning materials. The problem was that she had been too distracted to even think of bringing any extra food or water. She knew she could go without food for a while, until she got to the store in the nearby town, but what about water? She needed water... She licked her lips and glanced around the kitchen, which was conveniently near the bedroom (Grandpa had liked his snacks).

There WAS a sink in the kitchen, but, after all of these years, Kagome didn't think that the pipes and the water that the sink was responsible for, was very trustworthy to drink. So she decided, she'd have to leave soon to go into town. Hopefully she wouldn't lose her way.

While in town, she'd get the necessities and order a few appliances and stuff... She had enough money left over from the sale of the shrine to keep the house up. Since it was quiet, and remote, and with seriously less bills to pay; she decided that it was worth the major fixer-upper state that the house was in.

Her mind drifted then, remembering her golden eyed visitor last night. She really didn't know what to make of him... He had come into her room, and had reached out to touch her hair, or at least the top of her head. Why had he come in like that, if not to prey on like a rapist or a murderer? He hadn't done anything after she had hit him. He just... Left. After saying that he would be the only night time visitor she would get that night.

What did he want?

Everyone in the world wanted something, and wanted that something bad enough to do crazy things for it. Kagome knew how the world worked... No one just 'came to look'. She was extremely surprised that he hadn't done anything...

The sound of a door whining as it was opened jerked her out of her thoughts. Her heart sped up in her chest as she grasped a nearby counter for support, readying herself for whoever had come through that door.

But nothing came but the sound of something dropping to the floor, and the door opening again. No noise followed. Kagome listened carefully, but couldn't hear any footsteps. Maybe she was just imagining things...

She gathered her courage and decided to step through the doorway that led to the living room, stepping past the corner to the front door. She saw no one, and now, she was beginning to wonder if she had even heard anyone to begin with.

She calmed her racing heart and made a mental note to get a lock on her first trip to town. Installing it would probably be another story, since she doubted she could get a handyman this far into the forest without a lot of persuasion.

But there was something, like a container, and then, behind it; lay two dead rabbits. She resisted the urge to puke right then and there; seeing those little rabbits stretched out and unmoving. Her fore-mothers were probably rolling in their graves right now, seeing as they had been forced to prepare rabbit, deer, and any other kind of meat that their husbands caught. But Kagome did not want to see that.

Maybe she's watched too much of that cartoon character "Bugs Bunny" when she was growing up or something...

She inched towards the dead rabbits and the container and discovered that there was also a leaf filled with raspberries.

She looked up at the door in confusion, wondering why someone would come into the house and just leave this stuff here... Was someone leaving it there for later, or...? Or maybe they had left it there for her? Her mind flashed in comprehension, remembering her golden eyed stranger from last night.

It probably was him... He HAD told her that he was the only visitor she would be getting. And plus, she didn't imagine that there were more people who came in the house regularly.

She sighed and sat back on her knees from where she had gotten to them, trying to make something of the situation at hand.

What was this guy trying to do? Had he left this stuff as a sort of apology or something? Was he trying to impress her with his macho hunting skills? Kagome smiled, knowing that the second idea was probably more of her own making than having a chance of having anything to do with reality.

She glanced back down at the objects...

Well, one way or another; this food was in her house, and she was kind of hungry. Her stomach grumbled just as the thought ran through her head, telling her that she needed to have something to eat. Not that she needed any reminders...

"Yes Master..." She muttered to herself as she picked up all of the articles of food, besides for the dead rabbits, which she decided she pick up later... With a large napkin or something...

She shuddered at the thought and immediately pushed it out of her brain, instead deciding that she would have the raspberries for lunch, and then she would make the trip back to the town outside of the forest.

(Interlude)

_Kagome stepped out of her classroom, closing the sliding door behind her. _

_She was obviously curious as to what they had decided to call her out of class, but she was also extremely thankful that she was getting out of examining Trigonometry once again. No matter how many times they explained it to her, she just didn't get it. So why would she get it the fourth time if she hadn't gotten it the first, second, and third time? She was beginning to think that she had a learning disorder when it came to math class... Yeah, she and the rest of the students in her class..._

_She walked slowly so as to waste a little more time before she would have to return to math too soon. Hopefully, they might even be done studying trigonometry, and she could concentrate on what she really understood. _

_Normally, she wasn't like this... She was actually a very good student, but, for some reason, math didn't comprehend in her brain... Maybe she should-_

_"Miss Higurashi!" Her eyes widened as the secretary popped her head out the door. Kagome quickened her pace to an energetic walk as she straightened visibly._

_"Sorry Mrs. Mihara, I didn't mean to walk so slowly!" She grinned shamelessly, and was surprised when the secretary didn't smile back as she usually did, being a motherly woman herself._

_"Please hurry up Miss Higurashi, the principal needs to see you NOW." She said, in one of the most serious tones that Kagome had ever heard Mrs. Mihara use. She was beginning to wonder if something serious had happened..._

_Once Kagome was inside the principal's office, Mrs. Mihara ushered her into the waiting room to see the principal._

_The door was open, and Kagome could barely hear him talking to someone, probably the on the phone, since she couldn't hear anyone answer back._

_"Yes... I understand."_

_She sat in her chair, nervously fidgeting, wondering what possibly could be the matter. Her mind raced through various events and possibilities, scouring them for any hint as to what was going on._

_"Her uncle? He refuses to pay for... Oh alright..." Kagome peered into his office, wonder what her stupid uncle had to do with it. She had already told her mother that she wanted nothing to do with him. He was rude, selfish and very mean-spirited. He had put her down since she was a child, and after years of mental abuse, she had decided that she had been made fun of enough._

_"Alright... Thank you, goodbye." She heard the principal hang up the phone and sigh heavily. Kagome took that as her cue to go in; so she stood up and poked her head in the doorway._

_"Principal Kawashima?" She mewled in a small voice, getting a terrible feeling from everything she had just heard. Her heart beat fast in anxious worry... What had happened?_

_He looked up and smiled kindly,_

_"Ahh, Kagome... Please, sit down." He motioned to the seat in front of his desk. Kagome sat as she was commanded and tensed for what might be to come._

_He sighed and avoided her eyes, pushing his papers to one side so as to fold his hands on his desk._

_"Kagome... I'm not going to try and mask the truth with dodgy answers... But I'm afraid that I have to tell you something that is going to be very hard to hear." He looked her directly in the eyes in that way that principals always do._

_"What is it?" She whispered, gripping her chair arm rests in anticipation._

_"Kagome... Your mother-"_

_(End flashback)_

Kagome walked quietly along the path she had walked yesterday. Sifting through her memories, and cutting off the ones that hurt too much to think about at the moment.

Her intentions were simple. She would walk to the town at the edge of the forest, go to the nearest grocery store, buy food; then she would order some things from the construction store that she desperately needed.

Actually, she was probably going to go to almost every store to order things that she needed. Like a mattress, bedding, various cleaners... Stuff like that.

She would also have to find a way to make the walk to town a little easier...

Maybe if she saved up enough money from the job she was hoping to get, she could pave a road into the forest. Then at least, once she got a car, she could easily go from point A to point B, without walking through mud and bushes every five seconds.

The only thing she wasn't looking forward to, (other than the mud and bugs and bushes) was the walk home. She would be extremely tired, and it might be pretty dark by the time she got done with everything.

Sure... While it was light out, the forest was very minimally scary. But when it was pitch black, and you didn't know your path very well, then you could easily get lost...

Kagome pondered that for a moment before deciding that she wouldn't worry about it. She would just be done with everything before dark. If she wasn't, then...

Kagome decided to just leave and try to make it before the light of the day faded. If it took her longer than that, then she'd simply have to find a hotel to stay at.

She covered her eyes as light broke through the canopy of the forest, showing her the path out of her new home. She sped up her pace, clutching her purse tightly as she prepared herself for the outside world once again.

She walked out of the forest, making her way out of the bushes that surrounded her path. Of course, unbeknownst to her; a face peeked out from behind a tree, watching her with golden eyes and a thoughtful look. It was there for only a moment, staring at her as she walked; and then... It was gone.

(Switch)

It was late when Kagome came back, pulling with her a cart of new things for the house and herself. She was frazzled and tired from all of the spending and talking. While she had bought food, and some necessities she knew she would need; she had also managed to get a job at a local hardware store. It had minimal hours, but paid very well. The owner seemed to be a kind man; the kind of man that Grandpa would have been friends with.

Come to think of it... That was probably why she was being paid so well.

She shook her head, making her way past the bushes and at once entering the dark interior of the forest.

It had of course occurred to her that it WAS after dark beforehand. But at the point she was at, she really didn't care. She just wanted to go home and sleep after a nice bath. She wasn't sure if the bath would even function but she was too tired to dispute the idea of a relaxing bath.

Besides, she was sure that she could find her way. Things like this had an uncanny way of working out anyway. Kagome was sure that she'd just be able to get back without any trouble.

And that was still what she was thinking when she lifted her head and stopped, realizing that she wasn't sure which way to go.

"I'm sure I've seen this tree before, but... wasn't I supposed to be at that clearing by now?" She said to herself, furrowing her brow and shifting her stance. She didn't remember it taking this long to get there the first time; she didn't remember any of the rocks in her path either... In fact, she didn't remember this at all... Everything but that stupid tree was completely new to her.

"I'm not lost..." She said to herself with determination, deciding that she just had to walk a little further and she'd be at the house.

And ten minutes later, she still hadn't reached the house. Even Kagome was beginning to doubt her intelligence on deciding to enter the forest after dark.

"I'm lost..." She said out loud, letting out a frustrated sigh and throwing up her hands in defeat. She sat down hard on a log and rested her head in her hands and thinking about her options.

She had virtually nothing to defend herself, should a bum or an animal come and attack her, she wouldn't be able to fight them off. She had food, but she had wanted to save that for getting home, or else she's have to grocery shop tomorrow as well. And of course, the biggest issue was that she had no clue where she was. She might not even know tomorrow if she didn't recognize the surrounding territory.

She shivered and looked around warily, rubbing her arms absentmindedly as she finally began to notice the sounds of the forest. She didn't know what was what, and that scared her...

She could wait till morning and then try to search in the light when it was less dangerous, providing that she could recognize anything near the house the next morning... She grimaced and folded her hands together.

Or she could go now... Which would probably result in her getting lost more than she already was.

She hugged herself for warmth, and admitted her defeat.

She was so stupid...

Mom never would have done this. Kagome felt tears prick in her eyes at the thought of her mother; she sunk into herself quietly and pictured her mother's peaceful face. Smiling at her as though she had just hung the moon.

Kagome hadn't deserved that smile... At the time, she had made her mother a stupid picture frame, simply because she hadn't had the money to spend on her mothers birthday gift... She hadn't really even felt bad about it until she gave it to her mother a few days after she had made it.

Maybe it was the way her mother smiled at her, even though she knew that Kagome had had enough money to buy her something before, but had obviously chosen not to. She looked at Kagome and smiled, saying

"Oh Kagome, I love it!" With all the gratitude in the world, plainly there in her voice.

Kagome felt terrible after that... And that feeling was only added to when her mother died not two months after that.

She hadn't deserved that smile then, and she certainly didn't deserve that smile now...

Kagome didn't notice the tears falling from her eyes as she thought about her mother, and that beautiful smile. She didn't notice... Probably since that seemed all she had been doing lately. Crying for her mother... With the most terrible pain in her heart that she felt would last forever. Like every day lasted forever sometimes, without her mother...

"What the hell are you doing out here?!" Kagome looked up with a little gasp, meeting the golden eyes of her midnight stranger. She immediately scooted away from him, standing there in front of her with a fierce look in his eyes.

"I could ask you the same question!" Kagome squeaked, recovering from her shock enough to answer.

He sniffed awkwardly and looked at her in a confused way, taking in her tear streaked face. His eyes changed a little, maybe from being angry to being... a little softer. Kagome didn't know.

He moved forward and crouched down in front of her, resting an elbow on his knee.

"You shouldn't be out here so late at night. There are some bad things out, at night like this..." He looked around him, sniffing again and then looking back at her.

"The scent of your tears led me right to you." He said almost gently, his eyes flickering in the moonlight like gold.

Kagome, realizing at once that she had been crying, quickly wiped all of her tears away and rubbed her eyes.

He watched her without saying a word.

She looked at him for a moment, a fierce expression crowning her face. She wasn't sure if she should ask him for help, or even tell him.

While she wasn't denying in her mind, that without him, she was in dire straights. For now, he was the only way out of this. But... How could she trust him? How could she be sure that he really wasn't trying to do anything to her?

"I got lost, okay?" She said quietly, avoiding his eyes and concentrating on her bags, trying to gather them up as though she was going to try to find her own way again. He watched her do this with a small smirk on his face.

"You're only going to get more lost you know..." He said quietly, getting up and moving closer to her so as to take one of her bags. He picked it up and she turned to look at him incredulously, taking the bag back from him. Was he planning on stealing her stuff after insulting her, WHILE she was lost? Even Kagome admitted that she was going a little overboard when she stopped to think about her accusation.

But she had an excuse for going overboard. She was lost in the middle of the woods after a long hard day, and now, a wild man had come out of the bushes to steal her things. How was she supposed to think? Obviously being logical was clearly out of the question...

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Leading you home...?" He shrugged and picked up another bag, almost sounding irritated that she was hindering his efforts to help her. He turned with the bag and began to walk out of the clearing, implying that she should just take the hint and follow.

"What makes you think that I wanted your help?" Kagome, obviously, had never been very good at taking a hint...

She knew that she was digging herself into a very deep hole by being like this. She wasn't even like this normally; incepting of help from others when she was in dire need of it. But this situation was NOT normal... Not by a long shot. She crossed her arms in an attempt to defend her question.

He stopped walking and gave an exasperated sigh, shrugging his shoulders stiffly.

"Look..." He said through his teeth (It sounded like).

"Do you want to get back to your house or not?" He turned and looked at her with both eyebrows cocked, a not-so-patient look framing his face.

"I want to go home..." She said quietly, suddenly seeming to feel like a small child, dependent on him in the way that she didn't want to be.

"Well, then you're going to have to trust me and follow me back to your house." He said this slowly, as though he was talking to someone with an intelligence level much lower than his. He heaved a huge sigh and began walking out of the clearing once again

Kagome stood up and glared at his back, sticking her tongue out at him and calling him a jerk beneath her breath.

"I heard that."

Ignoring his reply, she went to gathering her bags and made to follow the man.

She had known all along that he was her only option out of this mess, and she didn't understand why she had argued so much against the idea of him helping her out. It was just common sense to follow the man and to just get home.

It was just, that the only question that remained in her mind, throughout the whole time he had offered; Was, why was he helping her? And more importantly, why was she herself going along with him?

She quickly walked out of the clearing with her bags, looking up to see the man standing there and waiting.

"Decided to join me huh?" He smirked while eyeing the bags in her hands. He strode forward, noticing that he only had one bag himself.

"Here lemme take a few more." He held out his free hand to her, taking more bags to lighten her carts load. Kagome even surprised herself by willingly giving the bags to him. He shouldered the bags and began to walk again, his dog ears pointed forward in the direction they were headed.

They actually reached the house rather quickly, with almost no conversation or interaction of any type. He led her silently, sniffing occasionally and sometimes stopping to lift a branch so that she could pass under. Kagome was amazed at how gentlemanly he was proving to be.

She was already reeling at the thought that he had come out to find her, and was now carrying her things and helping her to get back home... It was puzzling and yet... maybe reassuring too.

If she was going to be able to trust him, as only time would truly tell, then at least she would have one shoulder to lean on in a world of cold hard truth. But that was only if she could trust him...

And maybe it was only a fluke, or just a passing thought... But Kagome felt a tiny bit of trust form within the reaches of her heart, if only a tiny bit. He hadn't had to look after like he had done... And she guessed that something like that was worth something.

"Hey." A low growl jerked her out of her thoughts as the man in front of her turned to look at her. As soon as he had seen that he had gotten her attention, he looked forward again and spoke.

"We're here."

He was telling the truth. The ramshackle house stood before them, as welcoming as it possibly could look.

They stood there for a moment, not saying anything and awkwardly glancing at each other. Kagome was kind of ashamed that she had given him such a hard time. It was totally unlike her, and he hadn't deserved to have to deal with that from her.

"Thanks for helping me, I uh, I really appreciate it." She said quietly, looking up at him honestly.

"You're welcome." He said curtly, handing her the bags he had and turning to leave before she could say another word.

"Wait!" She called after him, biting her lip, wondering if she should really say what she meant to say. The man stopped and turned around again, looking at her curiously.

"What's your name?"

He raised his eyebrows suspiciously, opening his mouth right away to speak, but then deciding not to. He took a moment to regard her, probably wondering why she would want his name at a time like this.

"It's Inuyasha."

She sighed and formulated what she wanted to say in her mind before speaking, a skill that she had learned was more useful than bursting out loud. Her face flushed, and she stared down at her feet, nervously grinding the toe of one of her shoes into the soft dirt.

It was just kind of awkward to ask... How do you ask someone you barely know, and you just insulted a few times, and you kind of don't trust, to help you?

"Inuyasha... umm, I'm kind of in the process of fixing this house up. And I was wondering... If you have nothing better to do. I'd be happy to have you help me..."

Maybe she could trust him... Hear heart beat faster.

He flinched as he realized what she had just said, glancing at her with an almost unreadable look on his face.

"I... I guess." He said quietly, still sounding kind of surprised.

They both stood there for a moment, unsure of what to say in the midst of the agreement they had just made. He blushed and looked away, making to leave, she looked up to watch him go.

"So... see you tomorrow?" He asked quietly, earning a smile from Kagome as she nodded shyly from behind him.

"Yeah."

As soon as she was done answering, he slipped into the surrounding foliage with a silent departure. Kagome kept smiling to herself, lingering for just a moment and running through the last hour almost carelessly. She absently wondered why she wasn't so worried about him being someone bad... It seemed almost as though that worry that had gripped her so harshly was almost gone, but for a small sliver of suspicion.

Maybe it was because she had gone out on a shakily stable and had asked him to help her; and maybe...

Maybe it was because he had somehow sturdied that limb and had said yes...

She dismissed that thought resigning herself to putting away her groceries and going to bed, secretly thinking about the day that lay before her.

And maybe she was just a little excited about it... Maybe just a little...

Author note: WHOOOOOAH! DOOONNNNNEEE!!!!!!!

(Gets that out of her system)

Geez! This chapter would just NOT write properly! I got stuck at all of the obvious places, and couldn't figure it out for the longest time. I pretty much ignored this chapter until the end and worked on the beginning of Dwtd. I'm very sorry about that... But I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out what to make them do between the objectives that they accomplish.

Whatever. Okay, well anyway! Read and review!

Oi!

SONG LYRIC-

"I hate myself for breathing without you!"

Like you, Evanescence.


	3. Chapter 3

The Gardener

Chapter 3

By Zeldagurl

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, Just a lot of DVD's and Manga! I also don't own Cinderella (Can you imagine Inuyasha in a Cinderella dress? It's a little strange, let me tell you.)

Authors note: Well! From the response to the second chapter, I guess you guys liked my new style of writing! I don't know... When I started writing, it was a lot simpler and kind of actually boring to read. So I studied the styles of some of my favorite authors and tried to make my way a little more spicy and detailed.

I kind of just don't want to write beneath my potential. No matter if it's just fan fiction; it still matters to you guys, and maybe it has its own importance in its own ways.

So anyway, I'd like to ask where you guys want me to go with this. I have a few ideas, but I could also use some suggestions. I want to make sure that I don't do something weird with this.

(Begin)

It was early in the day, and Kagome was already up and at work inside the house.

She began by cleaning out the bathroom, and putting her things inside it, seeing as she would need them before the day came to a close.

She scrubbed the floor and took down the bath curtain, meaning to throw the worn, moth-eaten cloth with all expediency possible. She also managed to make the room free of any spider webs and or spiders...

She had actually wanted to wait for Inuyasha to arrive to actually start cleaning anything, but the sun had woken her up again, and she hadn't wanted to waste her time just sitting around and waiting for him.

In truth, she was a little unsure why she had asked him to help her the night before. She thought about it earnestly as she worked, and realized that it might have been a little unreasonable. It wasn't like they were old friends, or anything at all that would give her the right to ask him to help her.

She was probably just feeling bold the night before; going with her feelings and ignoring her brain. He had probably only said yes so that he wouldn't hurt her feelings; at least until he might be able to get away from her.

And how was she supposed to act around him? She didn't even know him...

The front door squeaked open, and she looked away from her work, pushing away her thoughts for another time and place.

"Inuyasha?" She called quietly, leaning back to look out of the open doorway to see if it was him.

He stood uncertainly in the doorway of the house, holding a container in his clawed hands and apparently opening his mouth to reply to her.

"Yeah, it's me."

She took off her yellow gloves, leaving them in the bathroom sink and walking out of the bathroom, rubbing her hands on a dishtowel. He met her eyes as he stood in her doorway, but he kept looking away. If kagome didn't know better, than she would say that he was maybe just as nervous as she was. Seeing as he kept shifting from side to side, and swallowed every five seconds.

She eyed the container, guessing that it was another tub of water.

"You can just put that in the kitchen if you want." She jabbed a thumb in the general direction of the kitchen, looking him up and down, wondering how she was going to work with him.

She didn't want to order him around; she kind of wanted them to work comfortably together; or at least that was how she imagined things going last night. She watched him move towards the kitchen silently, wondering what she could start him on; as well as how she could get him to talk normally to her.

He came back into the room where she stood and eyed her curiously while she composed a list in her head.

"Can you dust the furniture in here?" She turned back to him, confirming in her mind that it was something that absolutely needed to be done with the utmost speed. She really didn't want to have to be breathing in years of stuff that had collected in the house.

"Is that it?" He questioned, clearly surprised that she hadn't given him more to do.

"What? You think you can handle more?" She said incredulously, placing her hands on her hips.

"I can handle a hell of a lot more than that." He said indignantly.

"Yeah, well, we'll see how well you can back up your claim." She smirked at him and tossed her hair back onto her shoulders, walking back towards the bathroom.

"You wait and see." He muttered as he turned towards the said furniture with a look of sheer determination on his face.

Over the next half hour, Kagome heard a lot of running, and a lot of varied noises that could be labeled as questionable. She would hear him grunt, open the door, clear his throat, and even run around the room. So by the time she was almost done scrubbing out the toilet bowl (eww), he was standing in the doorway of the bathroom.

"Got anything else?" He smirked at her with a boasting gleam in his eyes.

She looked at him quizzically and shook her head, once again removing the yellow gloves.

"I gotta see this..."

She was actually pretty shocked when she saw that the whole living room was dust free, including all of the furniture and the light fixtures. It was so clean that Kagome didn't even know that it was her living room.

"You couldn't have..." She trailed off and looked up at him.

"Yep." He said smugly, watching her as she moved in amazement around the living room.

"What else you got?"

After getting past her initial shock, Kagome went back to the list in her head; deciding that if he thought he could handle a lot more, than she could certainly give him a lot more. It would be less work for her in the end anyway. Yeah, a lot less work...

"Clean out the gutters, patch the holes in the roof, and wash all of the floors."

She actually felt rather like the wicked step-mother in Cinderella, giving him chores that really would take a normal person all day to do with no break or anything. Except that Inuyasha looked to be very much male and not in a dress. Which was fine with her...

If he could handle it though, than she wouldn't feel that bad for him. She guessed that she would just have to wait and see.

She shook her head as he went back to work, and she went to hers.

Yeah, she would just have to see.

(Switch)

"So are you tired?" She asked, peering at him suspiciously from where she walked beside him.

"Not really." He said lazily, winding his arm to try and get the kinks out of it. She stared at him for a moment more before turning away and shaking her head wearily. She had worked on the bathroom and finished it, only starting on the kitchen before she had decided that they had to leave. She seemed to have done only a fourth of the work he claimed to have done, and she was kind of tired.

"Well, I'm glad you got all those things done at least." She concentrated on the path ahead of them, winding curvaceously around trees and groves of bushes in their way.

"You're just disappointed that I'm not the least bit worn out." He grinned at her.

They had finished up a while before and were now taking their time to get back to the forest boundaries in order to wait for the delivery men to bring the new appliances that Kagome had ordered the day before.

"No I'm not." She actually kind of was a little surprised that he was still raring to go. She had been sure that he would have at least been... Sore...? Or something like that...

It seemed that she had made a wise decision, asking him to help her out with all of the house repair stuff. He was very handy to have around, and they had gotten a lot more done today than she had even dreamed off having done.

All in all it was a good deal. Even if he made her look slower than molasses dripping in the snow on a freezing winter's night...

Wow, that was kind of depressing to think about...

"So how much stuff are you planning on hauling back to the house?"

"Oh, well, I've got a fridge, a microwave, an oven and some new pipes." Now that she thought about it, she wondered how she thought she was going to get all of that stuff back to the house. It would have been a long strenuous day just getting that stuff there without Inuyasha's help.

"I figure we'll make two trips to get all of it back to the house, and then I'll just have to run to work until later tonight." She smiled wearily, wishing instead that she could just go back and sleep, or relax or something. Which reminded her that she had to order a whole new bed set and somehow get a television with cable access.

"How late?" He asked, peering ahead to see if he could spot the edge of the forest.

"A long while later than last night. I think maybe midnight, he said it was."

Inuyasha was silent, simply walking along next her as they suddenly came upon the faint reaches of civilization at the edge.

They stopped walking, standing still within the shade of the trees and taking in the fresh light of the sun.

"I guess now we wait." She sighed quietly, moving to sit on a nearby tree stump while Inuyasha silently moved to lean against a tree.

Kagome set her purse down and crossed her legs, looking back up at him to continue their conversation.

"When I get back I'm going to see if I can try to get the bath going, so maybe I can take a soak in the tub."

She smiled at the thought.

"Oh yeah, because you'll be so incredibly sore from cleaning the bathroom right?" He said sarcastically.

"Hey, it's not my fault that you asked to have work dumped on you." She pointed a finger at him accusingly.

He held his hands up and shook his head with a slight smile on his face.

"I'm just saying that you could have done more to be as sore as you claim to be."

She laughed, "Whatever Inuyasha.", looking away so as to hide her giggles from him.

Both of them stopped talking for a little while, neither really wanting to ruin the good moment they were having. It seemed as though getting along with each other wasn't really going to be a problem. Kagome felt like a fool for worrying so much about such a trivial little thing.

Eventually, it was Inuyasha who spoke first.

"Kagome?"

She turned back to him, smiling slightly from their previous exchange.

"Yes? What is it?"

He looked at her for a moment, seeming to want to say something to her, yet, feeling as though he couldn't.

"Ah, never mind." He dismissed his thoughts and looked away, concentrating on the canopy of trees above them. Kagome herself thought little else of the awkward pause in their conversation. She didn't know him well enough to make any judgments on how he acted. If he really wanted to ask her the question, or whatever it was he had wanted to say, he would eventually ask her. She knew she was doing a complete 180 flip from her attitude yesterday, but... Well, she couldn't say much about yesterday, seeing as she had been completely freaking out and all.

Both of them were silent for a little while, waiting for the delivery men quietly while trying to think of something, anything at all that they could talk about.

"So uh, how have your first nights in the house gone?" He asked gruffly.

"Well, okay, I guess. I kind of want to get rid of my mattress as soon as possible. I mean, it took me all morning to stretch the cricks out of my back today." She winced, thinking back to the hard pains she had been forced to deal with in the early morning.

He chuckled at her quietly,

"Well, I would get used to it; you have no idea how cold it gets in the winter. If you're uncomfortable now, I hate to see how miserable you'd be in the winter."

She gave him a withering (but kidding) glare.

"That's why I'm going to hook up a heating system. You won't have to see ME suffering in the cold, since I'll be nice and toasty in my brand new pillow top mattress and comforter and my seventy degree temperatures."

"Yeah, whatever..." He said with an air of finality about him. He stood up straight and looked in the direction of the road.

"They're here."

Kagome stood up and looked in the direction that he faced, peering around the trunk of a tree to get a good view of the road. She didn't wonder how he possibly could have known; she just assumed that since he had dog ears, nails and fangs, he might also have some heightened senses as well.

She walked forward, moving out of the shaded and darkened grounds below the canopy of the forest and standing in anticipation for the truck to come.

"Inuyasha, I'm not sure we'll have time to get all this stuff back before I have to go to work." She said quietly, seeing the truck and noticing its large size. She had forgotten that most of the things she had ordered were just as big as her.

She waited for a moment or two, watching the truck approach and waiting for a reply from her intrepid companion.

She looked behind her, frowning from the lack of a reply from Inuyasha.

'He's gone!' She thought, turning all the way around and scanning the interior of the forest that she could see for the man who had promised to help her.

"I can't believe it..."

How was she supposed to get all this stuff home now? If she had known that he was going to ditch her, then she wouldn't have asked him to help at all! Her anger spiked as she turned back around and walked to the truck, which was currently being unloaded by the delivery men.

Maybe when he had tried to ask her before, but stopped... Maybe he wanted to tell her that he had to go or something. For what she couldn't imagine; he lived in a forest for Pete's sake, he couldn't have that big of a booming social schedule.

"Where did you want this ma'am?" She looked up at the delivery man who was now addressing her.

"Oh yeah, just leave it there." He looked at her blankly before glancing wearily at the large forest that stood behind her.

"You can't do that all by yourself."

"I know." She answered.

"Aren't you alone in that house?" He asked her, giving a glance back at his partner who grinned slightly. Kagome glanced cautiously at the both of them before answering his query.

"It's none of your business; take your tip and leave." She thrust some money into the mans hands before moving to the box that held the fridge. The man looked from the money to her, to his partner. Kagome didn't want to know what that look might have meant. She got a creepy feeling from the both of them.

As soon as they were gone, she tried moving the box, but found that with all of her strength she couldn't. And with only an hour to spare, she didn't know what she could do with these brand new appliances that seemed as heavy as mountains.

"Stupid Inuyasha..." She muttered to herself.

No one seemed to reply after a moment, so Kagome went and sat on a cut tree trunk with her head in her hands. Work was probably only a half an hour away, if she knew her luck, and she had no idea what she was going to do without Inuyasha's help. Why did he have to run away like that? And leave her to deal with those creepy delivery men. This whole day would probably come back to haunt her, her life was already a royal mess anyway.

"Now what am I gonna do?"

She heard movement coming from behind her and lifted her head wearily. One of the boxes apparently had started moving, and had grown rather muscular legs, because they were walking back into the forest.

"Where've you been?" Kagome raised an eyebrow at him (or rather, the box) and crossed her arms across her chest.

"I didn't want to have to talk to them, so I stayed in the forest." He said simply, taking another large box as soon as he had moved the first box a fair distance.

Kagome shook her head, not really wanting to think about the logic in that brilliant plan and looked down at her watch. She glanced at it for a moment before realization dawned on her, that her time to get to work was quickly running out.

"Oh man! It's later than I thought!" She gasped, looking quickly at the sinking sun. She hadn't actually thought that she had only had a half hour left!

"What?"

"I'm gonna be late!" She cried.

"Then go, I'll take all your stuff back to your house." He grunted, looking back at her from where he stood with the boxes in his arms. She looked at him for a few seconds and then looked back down at her watch.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, go ahead. I'll be here when you get back."

Kagome wasn't sure why she decided to leave the things in his hands, especially since he had run off on her not ten minutes before. But she knew she had to, or else she would be late for work.

It was a tough decision, seeing as she didn't completely trust him yet; and plus his little disappearing act really didn't seem to add up in her mind. But she kind of knew she had to... She couldn't be late on her first day; it just made her seem like a much sloppier person than she really was.

"Alright, I'll see you when I get back then." She sighed and grabbed her purse as he nodded back to her, standing still to watch her go.

She certainly hoped that she had made the right choice...

(Switch)

It had been the longest six hours of her entire life (Or so she thought).

She had sat there at the counter, staring at a set of power tools for the whole evening. Almost no one had come in, and when a man did come in, he simply browsed around for a while without buying anything. Kagome had already taken inventory or everything twice and counted the tiles on the ceiling four times. She couldn't believe how happy she was when it was finally time to lock the doors for the night.

She had to admit that she was being paid pretty well for just sitting there and doing nothing. The only thing she didn't like about the job (other than the six hours of time she had to pass) was that she was locking up and leaving at twelve at night.

From what she had seen of the town, it had seemed like a sleepy place where you could raise your kids without worry about whether they could be kidnapped or not. But she knew better than to rely on this unrealistic view of the town. After all, things in the light are not always the same in the dark.

Her mom had once told her about a waitressing job she had kept; often her mom said that she would be out of the building by one in the morning. She always said that it was scary time to be outside, so she had often walked home with her friend, or later dragged Kagome's dad to and fro.

At the thought of her mother, Kagome felt shame come upon her. She had been so busy thinking about Inuyasha and her new life, that she hadn't thought about her mother half as much as she should've. Even if she didn't want to feel the pain, her mother deserved her mourning, her sorrow. Her mother was such a wonderful person, she had deserved the world while she was alive...

Kagome shook her head, meaning to save her saddened thoughts for later, when she was safe in her house. She passed an open bar quietly, keeping her head down and not looking at the men who stood in front. She heard the wolf whistles and unsavory comments, blushing and making sure not to look at them.

Her mom would have stopped and yelled at them, she knew from experience. She knew what her mother would have said to them too...

But she was not her mother...

As soon as she stepped onto the hilly grove that led into the forest, she felt his eyes fixed upon her. She looked up, seeing molten eyes gazing at her from behind a tree.

"So you waited for me?" She smiled as he came out from behind the tree with a rather nervous look on his face.

"Feh, I had nothin' to do, so I figured I'd wait since I promised." He followed her quietly as she stepped into the shadowy forest.

"Well thank you anyway." She looked back at him with a grateful smile on her face. He ducked his head and said nothing, beginning a silence that lasted for a few moments as they walked together comfortably.

Kagome thought as she walked, wondering whether to ask him about earlier or not. If she brought it up, then there might be some sort of weird silence that happened once in a while. It would probably be a really sensitive subject, since he had neglected to try to tell her why he had just left (Or at least justified it with a good reason). She didn't want to create any hostility between the both of them...

"So, Inuyasha... How long have you lived here in the forest?" She diverted herself from the questions and warnings piling up against her, glancing over at the silent man beside her.

He raised an eyebrow silently, molding his face a little differently from the usual disinterested scowl she could tell he wore (And she had only known him for one day!).

"A couple of years." He said simply, hunching his shoulders and closing his eyes.

"A couple of years, as in what? Three years?" She questioned curiously, keeping her eyes locked onto the path, a small smile quirked on her face.

"Why do you want to know?" He looked at her irritably, frowning in a suspicious humor at the girl beside him.

"I'm just asking." She replied.

"I don't know, I don't really count." He shoved his hands in his pockets grumpily.

Kagome observed his reaction and decided that it might be better if she started with herself rather than him.

He didn't seem to be very talkative anyway...

"Well... You obviously know that I've only been here in the forest for a few days. But before then I lived at a shrine in Tokyo." She might have been more specific, but she didn't think that the references she would have made would have made any sense to him. So she continued...

"I lived there with my mom, brother and grandpa until my mom..." She swallowed the lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat. "Passed away."

"Sorry."

"No, it's alright. It's just that I'm just getting used to the idea. It's not your fault." She waved her hand dismissively, shaking her head to clear it of the recent happenings before the forest.

"Anyway, we ran the shrine and I went to school out there. I got out of high school and decided to come here, since the property was my grandpa's."

"Oh, so that old fart was your grandpa?" He asked, smirking as she rolled her eyes at him. Secretly she was a little glad that he hadn't pursued the part about her mom. She didn't know if she could handle explaining it to someone else at the moment.

"Yeah."

"Thought so."

She gave him a fake glare, smiling to herself once she looked away. She sighed, squinting into the distance to see the dark mass of darkness that seemed to be her house.

"So, without going into my life story, that's how I got here. I'm planning on staying here for a while; I'm actually not quite sure how long." She concluded herself, looking wearily at the moon, already risen high in the sky.

He walked her to the door of the house, his expression stony as she turned to him once they were actually there. She simply smiled at him quietly, shyly hunching her shoulders before him.

"Thanks for your help Inuyasha."

"No problem." He said in reply, meaning to be sarcastic, but somehow actually sounding so sincere that he surprised even himself.

"Same time tomorrow?"

"Sure." He nodded curtly, stepping back as she opened the door to the house and stepped inside, leaving a lingering glance his way.

He began walking away, turning back as he walked to see a light flicker on in the house. He smiled slightly to himself, and shook his head.

Usually when people came into the woods, he hid in the trees until he was absolutely sure that they were gone. Sometimes they would stay for a few days, sometimes only for a few minutes; but they all left sometime.

This Kagome girl didn't seem to want to leave. He had figured that out when she had asked him to help her clean the house up. Inuyasha had initially heard a loud warning in his mind, telling him not to get too close and to let her find out the hard way that you couldn't live easily out in the wild (unless you were him, of course).

But for some reason, he said yes, binding himself to her temporarily and killing any chance of her leaving any time soon. He hadn't even known why he had done it...

He knew that he had first gotten close to her (ergo sneaking into her bedroom) because he had caught a whiff of her scent, and it had faintly reminded him of his mother. So he wasn't as afraid of her as he had been of the many other people who had entered the forest.

But when she turned her big brown eyes on him a night earlier, and had asked him to help her, almost sounding like a puppy afraid of being kicked, he hadn't been able to refuse.

Maybe he had just felt bad for her...

Or...

Ah, maybe he just couldn't refuse to help a beautiful girl... Especially one that reminded him of his mother in very small ways...

Yeah, maybe that was it...

Or whatever...

Authors note: Hey! So I finished this chapter, a little behind schedule, but I still got it done.

Alright, firstly, I'd like to apologize to anyone who asked about the beta job. I'll be apologizing via private messaging as well, but, I didn't really have a chance to get in contact until now. I'm barely ever on the internet, except at school, and that doesn't leave me much time to conduct matters of importance. I'm extremely sorry that I haven't been able to mail anyone about the job. I will be sure to do so, believe me!

Alright, so tell me what you guys think. And I'll be sure to keep cranking the chapters out.

I'd also like to recommend a story to you guys that you can check out if you have the time or whatever.

It's called Okaeri...By an awesome author by the name of Blackberry. It's very well written, and I feel that it captures the personalities of Inuyasha and Kagome almost perfectly. And portrays an awesome plot through a lot of subtle writing, and many story elements that I have yet to come to use.

Look into it if you're interested!

RANDOM SONG LYRICS:

"And if you don't believe the sun will rise

Stand alone and greet the coming night

In the last remaining light"

-Audioslave


	4. Chapter 4

The Gardener

Chapter 4

By Zeldagurl

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Kagome; I just mess with their minds for my sick purposes. (laughs manically) (Sighs) Alrighty then...

(Begin)

The day was unusually hot.

Kagome hadn't known that it could get so hot in a forest that had previously been damp and cool. The girl lay on the couch that Inuyasha had personally brought back for her, fanning herself half-heartedly as the heat in the house bore down on her relentlessly. The window beside her was open, and let in the lightest of breezes, which seemingly did nothing for the over-heated girl.

A week had passed since her first day of work, and as a team, Inuyasha and herself had successfully cleaned all of the main rooms, and had brought in a lot of main priority things; the house finally felt like it was halfway hospitable. Now, Kagome would just have to keep building up her belongings, and begin paying for them from the generous amount of money that she received from the hardware shop...

Although it wasn't the future that posed a problem for the moment; it seemed that the biggest thing worth concerning herself with was the intolerable heat...

"G'morning Kagome." She flicked a glance over to the door that suddenly opened, revealing a shirtless Inuyasha carrying in the same large jug of water that he had brought in for the last few days.

"Nnng." She rolled over and curled into the couch, trying to avoid the warm rays of the sun that fell upon her from the open door.

The white haired boy quickly set his jug down on the kitchen table and came back into the living room, seeming entirely too energetic for the degree of heat that pervaded the area. He came to where she lay cuddled to the cooler part of the couch (out of the sun) and crouched down, his face taking on a bemused smile.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Gee Inuyasha, I don't know... Maybe it's my face melting off because of this terrible heat." She said irritably, turning her head slightly towards him to speak.

"It isn't that hot." He stated matter-of-factly, brushing his hair from off of his shoulder as he talked.

"How can you even think that?" She rolled over completely, glancing at him with a quizzical eye.

"I don't know; I just don't feel it. I mean, I've been living out here for a long time now, so I guess I'm just used to the heat..." He trailed off as he realized that he was rambling and he looked back at her pointedly. The girl responded by simply rolling her eyes and moving to sit up and talk with him normally.

"Well, how do you usually deal with the heat?"

He raised an eyebrow and shook his head, knowing that it probably wasn't a good idea to let her in on his little secret.

"Er... I don't think you'd... you wouldn't wanna..." he shook his head and looked away from her as he spoke. Kagome looked at him incredulously and shifted slightly as she tilted her head in curiosity at his mumblings.

"Inuyasha, I seriously doubt that I'm going to say no to anything that isn't going to make me any more over-heated; just tell me, okay?" She rolled over onto her elbows, immediately regretting the quick movement as her body heated up even more than it already had been. She looked up at Inuyasha even more urgently, wiping the sweat from her brow.

He looked at her for a few seconds, distinctly resembling a scared deer. He bit his lower lip and looked away, grunting in frustration as he decided to just tell her.

"Ah... you're so annoying."

"Just tell me Inuyasha." She ignored his desperate attempt to draw her attention away from his hidden suggestion.

"I go swimming in a small lake that's sort of near here, but you wouldn't want to because... I don't know, I always go there and stuff but it's not really that nice, especially for..." He trailed off, rubbing the back of his head dismissively. Kagome frowned and tilted her head, almost as if she didn't understand. She watched him for a moment and shrugged, apparently deciding that it wasn't worth the trouble.

"Well, I'll go get ready then." She said, standing up and stretching from her position on the couch.

Inuyasha silently watched her walk into her bedroom in order to get something, whatever, he didn't know.

He sighed and folded his arms across his chest, leaning against the wall with patience newly borne of dealing with her for the last two days. He looked around absently and noted to himself that she was singing to herself, obviously going through something with a fairly fast pace.

Admittedly, he was kind of dreading the fact that they were going to his lake. It was dirty in the sense that the water wasn't clear, and there were fish and plants in there. He didn't know if people who came from the outside knew about real lakes, much less a person who was so obsessed with being clean as Kagome was.

Besides the fact that Kagome probably wouldn't want to swim with someone like him... He thought with a depressed sigh.

He was also worried about the fact that they were both going, and that... well, he usually went sans clothes. He didn't imagine that she would have anything of the sort to cover herself up, so they would have to go in, one at a time. He was nervous that she'd... Inuyasha swallowed and stood up ramrod straight, blushing at the thought.

He just wouldn't swim... Yeah, that would do the trick. Nothing bad could happen if he wasn't in the water with her. Or at least he thought so...

"Inuyasha? Is there a reason that you're blushing, or am I just imagining things?" He looked up at the woman standing in the doorway and almost consequently fell over from the sight he saw. Kagome stood there, wearing nothing but a tight suit that only covered her to her legs and her arms. It wasn't like she was naked, or anything, but it was close enough, to be sure.

"It's n-nothing." He swallowed and looked away.

She tilted her head and looked at him for a moment, wondering if he could possibly be blushing because of her... ahem... state of undress.

"Well Inuyasha... if it's nothing, then let's get going, shall we?" She strode forward, a towel throne over her shoulder and her feet clad in bare sandals. She went to the door and opened the screen, not even mindful of the heat that she had been so intent on complaining about just a few a moments ago.

Inuyasha could only sigh and try to get his coloring under control, following closely behind her...

(Switch)

"Wow! It's beautiful out here!"

As soon as they came through the clearing that the lake resided in, Kagome exclaimed and rushed forward, dropping her towel on a rather large branch and slipping her sandals off right next to it. Inuyasha

followed, less than ecstatic, growing more and more nervous as the minutes passed.

He followed with a small distance between him and Kagome, going over to sit on the branch that held her towel and folded his arms across his chest, watching her approach the edge of the water.

The sun beat down on Kagome as she stepped into the shallow water of the lake, picking her steps with careful deliberation for fear of stepping on something that wouldn't be nice to step on, like a frog or something. She waded in up to her waist and found herself suddenly cooled down from the terrible heat.

She looked back at Inuyasha, who watched her silently, with a worried and thoughtful look on his face. She smiled and beckoned to him, tilting her head in an effort to get him to follow her in.

"Inuyasha, aren't you going to swim?"

He shook his head and stayed where he was, his face going back to the terrible scowl he had been wearing the whole way there. She frowned at him and put her hands on her hips,

"Then what was the point coming here Inuyasha? I came here to swim; I thought you were going to swim with me."

"I came to make sure you don't get attacked by a squirrel or something."

"A squirrel?" She asked indignantly, "Inuyasha, I really don't think that the squirrels are going to be giving me any problems, considering the fact that I'm like twenty times bigger than your average rodent."

"Yeah, well... knowing you..." He muttered, looking away and smirking to himself. Kagome narrowed her eyes at him and let out a frustrated breath of air, turning around so that she wasn't facing him in a fit of anger. She was silent for a moment, before looking back with a smug look on her face.

"Well, Inuyasha, since you don't want to swim with me, I guess you'll just have to sweat buckets over there while I'm cooling off in this nice crisp water." She gave him one last glance before diving headlong into the lake.

Inuyasha frowned at the water where she had disappeared, wondering why she had been so insistent that he join her. He was just doing her a favor by staying away from her while she enjoyed herself, along with the fact that he had nothing to wear while swimming and he didn't want to get his ONLY pair of pants wet.

He looked away for a moment, gazing longingly at the house that was only though a bit of trees and bushes from the lake where he now was. He wanted to cool off, but he had no way to do so unless Kagome wasn't there.

He looked over at the spot where Kagome had dove into the lake and raised his eyebrows at it. It had already been a good half of a minute, hadn't it? Why hadn't she come back up yet?

He got to his feet and walked tentatively over to the edge of the water, crouching down and peering into the murky liquid that was just barely lapping against his toes.

"Kagome?" He called, blinking at the water and trying not to let his mind rush to conclusions that were far direr than the situation was supposed to be. He leaned in and tried to see her, trying desperately to get a glimpse of her. When he didn't see her, he took a deep breath and decided in a split-second decision that he was going to have to save her.

He took a breath and closed his eyes, only to be pulled into the water before he could hold onto the breath of air he had just taken.

Inuyasha opened his eyes in shock and saw Kagome, swimming up to the surface with a stupid grin on her face.

Kagome came to the surface laughing, holding her sides as Inuyasha came up as well, with an extremely pissed off look on his face. She looked up at him and tried to hold her giggles in, as he tromped over to her, his long white hair sticking flat on his back and face and shoulders.

"You looked so funny! Oh man, I can't believe you fell for that one!" She gushed, her face turning red from her laughter.

Inuyasha simply waited until she calmed down, crossing his arms across his chest and glaring at her from beneath wet, dripping white bangs. As soon as she was done, he drummed his fingers on his arms and expelled a long-suffering sigh.

"Are you done?"

"For the moment, yeah."

"Good." Inuyasha gave her a sudden toothy smile.

"Inuyasha..." She shied away from him and narrowed her eyes, "Why are you smiling at me like that?" She asked, dreading the answer.

The next thing she knew, Kagome had been tackled by a revenge-bent boy, falling into the shallow water of the lake. She flailed helplessly as they both fell together, he smiled at her beneath the water with a wicked grin on his face, and Kagome giggled at the sight (internally of course, since they were both underwater).

They surfaced and Kagome gasped for breath, taking only a few seconds to recover before taking the initiative on the grinning idiot and splashing him with a great wave. He retaliated, and they continued like that for a couple of minutes, staking out battle claims and hiding from oncoming waves behind rocks and underneath the water.

From that moment on, it was much more comfortable between the two of them, Inuyasha already having had loosened up and Kagome happy that she had gotten him to relax. They played and they chased each other (mostly Inuyasha chasing Kagome, actually), laughing and smiling at each others antics and forgetting that tension that sprang up so easily if they let it. That afternoon already seemed to be joyfully engraved in their memories, even though they were still living it. They were like children, in a world that had required for them to become adults much too soon.

The afternoon carried on into early evening, and the heat seemed to fade just enough for it to be moderately comfortable. The skies darkened and the stars began to come out, sprinkling across the sky in a vast formation.

And as evening came, they calmed down, moving to sit and lay on the banks of the lake, staring up at the stars and the trees and talking about nothing in particular. Both of them were quite tired, and had become lazy and lethargic in the time that they had sat down to rest.

Kagome looked up at Inuyasha from where she lay, examining his profile as he smiled into the trees about something she had said. Her lips twitched as a contented feeling flowed throughout her entire being; she hadn't felt so relaxed since before her mother had... Since her mom had died, she had always been telling herself to be strong, and to carry on for Souta's sake. It had only been a short while ago, but it was such a heavy weight to carry, even for a small while.

Inuyasha looked down at her with the smile still lingering on his face, leaning back on his palms with his arms supporting him.

"Hey." He said.

"Hey." Kagome's smile widened and she blinked her gaze away, making an excuse by stretching and yawning belatedly.

"You ready to go home?"

"I think so." She said simply, closing her eyes and snuggling into the rocky sand beneath her, suddenly finding it cold in the coming night and rubbing her bare shoulders.

Inuyasha smiled and looked down at her.

Though he wouldn't admit it beyond the smile that he had been wearing since that afternoon, he was feeling contented too.

Just being with her like this made him happy, and made the loneliness that he had lived and struggled with fade away. He had never known what happiness truly felt like, and he wondered if he had ever felt it and missed it. He had felt happy when he had first planted the vegetable plants; he had been sure that happiness wasn't as great as people made it out to be. But that feeling didn't really compare to this: being with Kagome, and knowing that she was just as happy as he.

It was an intoxicating feeling that now proved that regular humans weren't so sappy and stupid after all...

With that thought, he got up, moving to bend over and pick up the sleepy girl. He scooped his arms underneath her arms and her knees, and made sure that her head was gently tucked beneath his. He took a deep breath and took in her wonderful scent, letting it fill his brain with a woozy, happy feeling before setting off through the clearing beyond the lake. He was so tired himself, that he almost forgot Kagome's sandals and towel, he picked them up (It took a couple tries with Kagome in the way.) and made his way back to the house.

As soon as he got into the old house, he brought Kagome to her bedroom and laid her down on her bed, bringing the covers up to her chest and absently smoothing her hair on her forehead. He smiled once more, and then went back out to the living room, deciding that Kagome wasn't going to kill him if he took a nap inside the house as well.

He settled himself against the wall of her living room and bowed his head, falling victim to the sleep that he had been fighting off since he had left the clearing where they had laughed the afternoon away.

But just before he slipped into the land of sleep, his eyes drifted up to the door that hid Kagome from him and the world. He smiled with a small twitch of his lips and closed his eyes, sighing in contentment to the bottom of his soul.

(Switch)

Kagome woke up a short time later, unaware of her surroundings until she realized that she was back in the house, staring up at the stained brown roof that sagged haphazardly just above her. She groaned and sat up, looking down at herself and seeing that she had a kind of skunky smelling swimsuit still on, making her question the actual cleanliness of the lake.

She stood up and opened the door, walking out in the living room and seeing no trace of the boy that she had spent the afternoon with. She shrugged and walked to the kitchen, deciding to grab some water to drink before taking a shower and sanitizing her swimsuit as best she could. As she passed the front door, she heard a slight cough, and she stopped, leaning towards the screen door (Which was open, of course) and peering outside.

"Inuyasha?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

She smiled and continued into the kitchen, grabbing a cup of water and making her way to sit outside next to the boy. He looked up at her as she opened the door and looked back down as she parked herself on the porch next to him.

"So... What'cha doing?" She asked in hopes of starting a conversation.

"Nothing really."

She sighed at the lack of answer and decided to follow his gaze to the skies he seemed intent on staring at. She was surprised at the stars in the sky, wondering why she hadn't noticed beforehand, they were beautiful. She always used to look at the stars, thinking about fate and about fairy tale princes, and true loves, and fantastical stories that a young teenage girl could only think of. Of course, that was before Science class dissected the anatomy of a star step by step, and Kagome learned that the sun was a star, and that stars eventually become huge balls of fire that incinerate everything near them before they died. It had been a little disturbing, but it hadn't completely turned her off of her hobby.

"I forgot how beautiful stars are." She said in wonder of the glittering night sky.

"Yeah." He looked down at her for a second before looking away.

Kagome looked at him for a moment and then looked down at her feet, wriggling her toes absently in the event of what she had to say.

"Inuyasha, I really had a fun time today. I guess today has actually been the first time that I've been so relaxed since before mom died." She swallowed a lump that automatically formed in her throat and smiled.

"I just wanted to thank you for coming along with me."

Inuyasha looked back down at her once more, looking at her with a strange, thoughtful look in his eyes. He leaned back with his arms out to support him, and looked back up at the skies.

"...It was fun for me too."

Inuyasha only wished he could tell her what he really felt about that afternoon. He had never felt so... He didn't even know the word to describe it. He had only ever known fear and loathing from humans who had entered the forest, he had always been so alone and afraid. It was just so amazing to him that a girl like Kagome could make him trust her, and feel differently from the usual and the normal feelings of his life.

"I've always loved watching the stars, ever since I was a little girl. Have I ever told you about that?" She looked at him for confirmation and then looked away again after he gave no signs of agreeing.

"To me, they symbolized good things. It was like they lit up the night so that people like me would never give up hope, even in the darkest sky. Maybe you couldn't see the stars, but they were always there, once the clouds moved away." She smiled.

"I'd look up at the stars, and I would know that I would never really be alone. No matter if someone at school teased me, or if I was just lonely, you know? I knew that somewhere in my future, I would find my star, to keep me shining brightly when all other lights would go out."

Inuyasha heard only the beat of his heart, and the words of the girl next to him, feeling a deep understanding flooding his being as she spoke. He looked at her with amazement in his eyes, his mouth hanging open and his figure stiff with wonder.

He knew that hope that the stars seemed to give Kagome, he had asked for such hope time after time, each time realizing that he would never have such hope. He knew that as long as he remained in the forest, he would be alone. And though his loneliness hurt worse than anything, he couldn't find the courage to venture back out into the world. He was afraid, of rejection, and of the cruelty he had experienced only a few times before.

She suddenly broke out of her stupor and looked at him, wiping a few stray tears out of her eyes as she smiled at him apologetically.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to run on like that. I just... It's such an important subject to me; once I get started on it, I just can't seem to stop." She laughed a little in spite of herself.

She understood. She understood him, without even knowing. How could that be? This girl... this woman from a place that he had never known, seemed to unknowingly understand him...

He found himself looking back over the past few days, thinking of the companionship that he had found in Kagome. And it was just too perfect... Kagome was perfect... If he ever had a choice between Kagome and the loneliness that he had lived with for his whole life since his mother, he would certainly pick Kagome. He even surprised himself when he decided in his mind, that he would pick Kagome over almost everything he had ever known.

He smiled back, pulling out of his wonder, and realizing a single thought that reverberated through his mind as soon as he thought it.

'I love her...'

His mind flooded with explanations, telling him the reasons, and yet confounding him beyond confusion and knowledge.

Love? What did he know about love? How did he know he really loved her, so suddenly and so swiftly?

All of his doubts overwhelmed him, and would have swallowed the thought forever, if not for one single reason that supported the thought sturdily.

He felt it. He felt a feeling that he had never known before, but had heard much about, from books he had gotten a hold of and hearsay he had taken in. It was more than the descriptions, and it was stronger than simple friendship.

The feeling came without a name...

"Well, I'm going to take a shower and go back to bed." She took one final look at the sky before standing up and grabbing the water she hadn't drank from since she came out. She reached out and put a hand on his shoulder,

"Goodnight Inuyasha."

His shoulder burned like a beautiful, warm fire where she touched him, and he regretted suddenly being bereft of her warmth as she walked back into the house.

"G-Good night." He managed to call out to her.

And as the door slammed shut, Inuyasha realized with an air of finality, that he now had a lot more to think about now that Kagome was in his life.

A LOT more.

(End)

Authors note: I'M SO SORRY! I just haven't been able to write this story lately! It was the same problem with my other story, Dancing with the Devil. I just couldn't think of a way to do this chapter.

(Gets hit in the head with a rather large brick)

Yes, I know, that's no excuse. But I've been really busy with the musical I'm in (Oklahoma), and I've had no time to do any planning for this story, so I've been doing a lot of one-shots lately.

(Sighs)

I promise to start really buckling down on this story, along with my two others. I don't want to make you guys wait as much as you have, but if you have anywhere you want this story to go, I have a couple of ideas but I still need a few more in order to string the plot together.

Anyway, hope you liked it. Read and review! Because you know that authoresses live on reviews and sugary substances that are forbidden to them because most of them are on diets anyway, thus driving them to live in their basements and write stories. (Or is that just me?)

Oh well

Read and review!

Random Song Lyric

"Anywhere you go

Let me go too

Love me

That's all I ask of you"

'That's all I ask of you' from **The Phantom of the Opera.**

(Switch)


	5. Chapter 5

The Gardener

Chapter 5

By Zeldagurl

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha but I do own a blanket (with his face on it) that I snuggle every night. How bout' that?

(Begin)

"Inuyasha... Are you having trouble with that?"

"I'm doing fine." Came the terse reply.

"Because I would be happy to help you if you just so happened to need-"

"I SAID I'm doing fine, Kagome, go clean a sink or something." Inuyasha growled, picking up a wrench and banging it on the confounded contraption that he'd been "working on" since the early morning. He was at a loss for what to do, and had been for quite a while, although he would never tell Kagome that...

"What are you doing?" Kagome poked her head out of the open doorway of the house, raising an eyebrow at the clueless boy.

"Making progress." Inuyasha furrowed his brow even further and abandoned his trusty wrench for a screw-driver, and pounded even harder on the poor machine.

"Banging a screw-driver on the new air-conditioner is hardly progressive Inuyasha." She frowned as he continued, ignoring her criticism in favor of beating the air-conditioner up. Kagome sighed and walked over to the paper pamphlet that lay forgotten by a tree. She picked up the forlorn papers, and sighed at the terrible state of them.

The directions were simple enough, and would have been understandable to Inuyasha, except that he had refused to look at them after the first two seconds of reading. Kagome winced at the words, like cooling unit, reverberation, and forward aft compartment... Wait... Kagome wasn't sure if this was supposed to be an air conditioner or an airplane...

She looked up to find Inuyasha standing up and raising a leg to kick the machine; he looked up as soon as she did and backed away sheepishly, busying himself with finding an unbroken screwdriver.

"This is hopeless..." She said, half to herself while staring at the air-conditioner. Inuyasha was currently trying to yank a tool out of a tree trunk, which had been there since he had thrown it early that morning. Normally Kagome would have commented, but she decided that some things were just best left alone.

Kagome looked at the path that led out of the forest and back at Inuyasha, who was no doubt realizing that he had broken all of the screw-drivers and other such tools in the course of the morning. Kagome ignored that for a moment and considered the heat of the day, just coming with the climbing of the noon sun; today would be just as bad as yesterday was, which meant that the house would be unbearable. And as much fun as she had been having yesterday at the lake, she didn't particularly feel like exposing her poor shoulders to any more sun.

"Inuyasha..." She called tentatively, gearing up for some major begging.

"What?"

"You need help."

"No thank you, I'm perfectly sane." He replied from where he now sat, and soon sprawled on the forest floor.

"Not that kind of help, although it may be consideration in the future, let me assure you." She pursed her lips and squatted down next to him, "I meant that WE need help with the air-conditioner."

"And what exactly are WE suggesting? It's not like magical shoe elves are gonna come and put it together for us..." He sighed melodramatically.

"... Well that was out of left field. I wasn't even going to suggest magical shoe elves, unless we were really desperate." She winked at him, "How do you know about shoe elves anyway?"

"... I've read some things in the past that I'm not proud of..." Inuyasha admitted.

"Ah." Kagome voiced in a confused understanding. She shook her head and forced herself to reiterate her main point, "Anyway, what I mean is that... Well, you obviously can't figure this out, and I'm brain-dead when it comes to putting anything together-"

"Wow, I could have said so many things right there... You shouldn't just walk into insults like that... It's lucky for you that I'm such a nice guy." He commented somewhat lazily.

"-SO," Kagome said forcefully continuing, "I think we should take it into town to where I work, I'm sure they know how to put an air-conditioner together."

Inuyasha was silent for a moment, and the grin on his face was instantly replaced with a neutral grimace.

"That isn't a great idea." He said quietly, sitting up and keeping his eyes towards his feet.

"Why not?" Kagome asked gently, noticing right away that the levity of their situation was gone.

"I can't go there. I don't think that they want me there."

"But Inuyasha, I can't carry that thing by myself, I need you to come with me." She gave a wary glance towards the pathetic looking machine, and then took a look at Inuyasha, who was also looking almost as pathetic at the prospect of leaving the forest.

She felt a terrible pang of guilt in her heart as her eyes met his for just a moment, she shouldn't have even suggested it... If it was going to be this hard for him... then she would just... have to figure something else out.

"Inuyasha, if you really don't want to then I won't-"

"It's okay." He said quickly, standing up and taking a deep breath. Kagome could almost visibly see him accepting his fate.

"But I-" Kagome gave him a queer look.

"It'll just be in and out, right? If it's just a quick number, then I think I can handle it." He said, sounding a little more like his usual self. Kagome sighed, kind of glad that his haunted look and his depressed voice was gone as quickly as it came. It was too disheartening to see him upset...

"Yeah Inuyasha, it'll be quick. And if you want, we can disguise you so that no one would even know that you're any different than anybody else. They'll just figure that you're from the city, like me." Kagome chirped happily. Inuyasha smiled half-heartedly, if only for her sake, and Kagome stepped forward and placed her small hand in his large fingers.

"Everything's going to be fine." She smiled as he blushed and looked away. They stood there like that for a moment in silence, until Kagome decided that it was apparently time to get started.

"Ooh! I can't wait to dress you up! It's like a makeover!" Kagome squealed, immediately lightening the mood. Inuyasha was less than enthusiastic.

"Just please don't do anything strange to my hair." Inuyasha pleaded as Kagome dragged him into the house with-most likely- diabolical ideas in her head.

(Switch)

"Okay, now just act normally, and you'll be fine. Let me do the talking." Kagome hissed as they stepped onto the sidewalk from the road.

"Yeah, yeah." Inuyasha groused, his eyes darting from building to building, suspicious of any and all sunny patches of grass and open windows with curtains fluttering in the breeze. He had already nearly walked into a telephone pole, a bench, and an oddly placed tree because he was so busy playing look-out, but it was worth it as long as he could see any threat to his and Kagome's safety. Kagome though, wasn't half so enthralled. Soon enough she was leading him like a dog leads a blind man with a tight hand on his arm, steering him in the right direction from time to time.

Inuyasha, as promised, was doing the perfect acting job of pretending that the air-conditioner was almost too much. He complained almost the whole way, whining that he couldn't see over the bulky box. He had even continued complaining, long after the need to act a little more inconspicuously human had come and passed, but Kagome let him get away with it because she was high-strung herself, and didn't really feel like yelling at him here in the middle of the sidewalk in the little town.

Kagome pushed the glass door open and Inuyasha tried not to wince as the bell above the door rang loudly. With his height being what it was, the bell was directly over his head, which also meant it was directly over his sensitive ears too. Inuyasha sighed miserably and followed Kagome to the front counter, all but dropping the air conditioner on the table top. Kagome gave him a flat look before turning to greet the old man who owned the store.

Mr. Yoshida was a quiet man, seeming almost out of place in a hardware store, and rather belonging in a charming old bookstore. He was kind, with a glimmer of good in his eyes. Kagome liked him a lot, looking to him almost paternally despite the fact that they had only known each other a few days. Inuyasha noticed right away that she was very friendly with the man just from the exchanged looks of greeting.

Kagome visibly calmed herself at the sight of Mr. Yoshida's smiling face.

"Ah, Kagome. How are you today, my dear? You haven't been having too tough of a time cleaning up your Grandfathers house so far, have you?" Of course he already knew that it hadn't been a picnic, he only asked to tease her and to assure her that he had nothing but fond memories of her Grandfathers senility and oddball decorating schemes.

"You know... the usual: old mattresses, barely functional plumbing, spiders galore," She shivered, remember the multitude of spiders and other kinds of bugs that she had employed Inuyasha to kill over the past few days, "Other than this air conditioner, we're doing fine."

Inuyasha snorted loudly, but was quickly cowed when Kagome shot him a death glare, "...Ahem... Something in my throat..." He explained gruffly. Mr. Yoshida glanced at him as though seeing him for the first time, raising his eyebrow at the sunglasses and the ball-cap. Inuyasha looked away, shying away from the old man and his interested look. Kagome peered at the silent exchange and wondered if she should distract the both of them, since Inuyasha hadn't seemed to keen on talking with anyone anyway.

But soon enough Mr. Yoshida shrugged and decided to turn his attention to the box on his counter. Kagome breathed a silent sigh of relief.

The old man sighed at the sight of the air-conditioner box, dreading what he would find inside. He took another fleeting glance at the silent young man standing next to Kagome, "And who is this? A boyfriend perhaps?"

Kagome blushed and shook her head fervently, managing to avoid Inuyasha's eyes as she tried to explain.

"No, this is my friend..." She looked at Inuyasha for a little guidance and he pulled a face at her.

"...my friend Inuyasha, he's been helping me move in and all. In fact, he was the one trying to figure out hoe to put that together." She bit her lip nervously, making a note to herself to maim Inuyasha later for his smart mouthy attitude.

Mr. Yoshida took in Inuyasha's almost outlandish appearance and broke out into a grandfatherly smile, sticking out a friendly hand to Inuyasha,

"It's nice to meet you Inuyasha. Welcome to our little town of Miyako. I hope you'll be staying awhile..."

Inuyasha accepted the old man's hand awkwardly and smiled nervously, darting a glance at Kagome to make sure he was doing it right. She in turn, pulled a face at him, probably as payback from before... He made a mental note to himself not to make faces at her when she might be useful in any way. Which of course, he promptly forgot as soon as the though went through his head.

The old man smiled at the exchange and let go of Inuyasha's hand, deciding to take a look at the poor air conditioner before anything else happened to it.

"Ah... Wow... Did you..? Wow."

"Do you think you can do anything about it? Set it up maybe?" Kagome peered into the box as well and winced at all of the dents and scrapes.

"Well, I can try. I won't know how bad this is 'til I can get my hands into it and all. So I'll have to ask you folks to come back a little later." Mr. Yoshida rubbed his hands wearily through his thinning hair.

"How much later?" Kagome asked, darting a nervous glance at Inuyasha who had turned a withering glare on her at the old man's words.

"A couple of hours at least." He smiled apologetically and adjusted his stereotypical grandpa glasses on the bridge of his nose. Kagome winced and nodded, "Well, if you say so, then I guess we'll be back in a while... Thank you." She added wearily, reaching out without looking for Inuyasha's hand. He blushed as she grabbed it and led him out of the store, gripping it loosely.

"I'm sorry Inuyasha." She said genuinely, turning to face him as soon as the door had shut behind them. She sighed and looked down,

"I'm guessing that we're going to have to hang around town for a while. So... If you want to... We can get some ice cream and stuff while we wait." She suggested inconspicuously, her eyes veering away from his general direction in a shy manner.

"It's not good for me to hang around here." He reminded her quietly, his eyes flitting about for a completely different reason.

"But... No one would recognize you, not as you're dressed now. I'm sure that no one would mind you hanging around for one day." Kagome pleaded.

It was probably true. Although Kagome's grandfather had never been his height and build, he had some pretty interesting clothes stocked up. Even Kagome had been surprised at the things that she had found in her Grandfather's old Bureau, she hadn't known that her old fart of a Grandpa was so... erm... interesting. But nevertheless, Inuyasha was stuffed into his clothes until Kagome could sneak into a clothing shop and buy some more modern clothes for the boy behind the building. Consequently, they had tied up his hair and put a baseball cap on his head to cover his -now crushed- ears. He wore dark sunglasses and barely smiled for fear of showing his teeth... And other than that, Inuyasha was pretty normal; most people on the street didn't give him a second look. Kagome wouldn't have thought he was any different from your average city kid...

She had seen weirder.

"I don't know..." He said unsurely.

"Inuyasha... I just want you to have a little fun, that's all." She cajoled sweetly, "You deserve a treat after helping me and everything." And she didn't exactly feel like tramping all the way back to the hot and humid forest to stare at him for another four hours, but she didn't let him in on that too specifically.

Inuyasha frowned for a moment before sighing and nodding his head in defeat, jamming his hands in his pockets grumpily.

"If you insist... But this'd better be good." He resisted the urge to stomp petulantly like a child, but he knew that would pretty much get him nowhere.

Kagome looked up at him with a smile and grabbed his hand, "You're being really great today, you know that?" She beamed.

"Like how?"

"Well, I just..." She took a quick breath, "I know that it was hard for you to come today, and you're taking all of this so well." She smiled, "It's actually kind of creepy, like you're waiting to exact your revenge until the right moment." She added as a jokey afterthought.

He smirked and kiddingly tightened his grip on her fingers, unconsciously making the girl blush, "Ah, she's guessed my plan. There goes the element of surprise." The girl giggled and ducked her head.

"C'mon you goof." She pulled him along the sidewalk as he grinned at her back haplessly in reply.

"You just wait till' we get home tonight..." He smirked.

The world felt lighter already...

(Switch)

"So... This is the greatest flavor of anything known to man: Chocolate." Kagome held up her cone with a flourish as Inuyasha watched with amusement at her antics. He looked down at his cup of the same flavor; Inuyasha had decided early on to play it safe and get the same thing Kagome would be getting, since she would obviously have already been obsessed with it, as she was.

He took a tentative lick from his spoon as Kagome dove into hers with a tenacity that he hadn't known had been in her. He imagined that she was the type of person whose face was constantly covered with chocolate as a child, along with the silly little kid grin that made the adults giggle and coo ridiculously.

He wasn't sure how he knew about little girls with chocolate covered smiles... As a little boy, he hadn't ever known any little girls. Maybe it was his mother... She has shown him a picture once. He was sure that the picture had been of her when she was young...

"So what do you think? Heavenly, huh?" Kagome smirked as she bit into her cone, almost immediately realizing that a stream of chocolate had dripped down the side, and now smeared across her chin, which was almost the equivalent of waking up in a puddle of drool (that had happened that morning).

"It isn't so bad." He said nonchalantly, "It might be a bit of a stretch to call it heavenly." But what did he know about heaven anyway? He asked himself in the same unassuming tone.

She frowned playfully and sighed as though it was his loss, "Fine then: The greatest flavor known to woman, then." She raised an eyebrow at him, "Better?"

"Yep." He took another good sized spoonful of his ice cream and glanced out the window to the sunny sidewalks of the town. It was such a nice place. He almost wished he could live here with everyone else, walking down the sidewalks for no other reason but to walk, and eating ice cream with the girl he treasured. He almost laughed at himself for the corny statement, but it was true.

Now that he wasn't afraid and freaked out by every little detail of the town, he could see why people would enjoy it, instead of unending solitude like he had always known.

It would be nice not to be lonely...

Was it too much to think that he could do that? Live here as a normal guy? It was a simple concept that had been too much for the boy to think about before.

He had always been longing, always been wanting to belong here, but he knew he never could.

He looked across the table at Kagome who was absorbed in her chocolate cone, making appreciative noises and happy faces without knowing it. He shook his head and decided to leave his dreaming to the hours of night, opting instead to poke fun at Kagome's apparent addiction to chocolate.

"They say the first stage of admitting you're an addict is denial."

Kagome looked up at him and grinned, "I'm way past that one."

"Good, I'm glad you're on your way to living a healthy and productive life as a normal person." Inuyasha grinned and scraped out the last of the ice cream in his cup, wishing that he still had more left.

"Says the other addict," Kagome raised an eyebrow at his cup, tasting the last of her ice cream and tossing the last of her cone in her mouth. She sat back appreciatively and smiled with an expression of rare inner peace on her face.

"At least I know when to stop." She sighed dramatically.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and stood up, tossing his cup into the nearby garbage can and extending his hand to the happy girl.

"C'mon, let's go see if that old guy is done." She accepted his hand and stood up, smiling as he led her out the store and back towards the hardware store. She realized the happy feeling in her heart and smiled at the boy beside her, the one who had a trace of a smile himself.

It was times like these that she almost felt like she was floating, and she was sure that Inuyasha was floating there along with her.

(Switch)

Inuyasha lay quietly up on the roof, staring up at the twinkling stars that smiled above him. The wind blew softly, brushing his hair against his face gently as time passed on.

It had been a full day for Kagome and him.

He had been fully surprised to find that the town was almost harmless. He hadn't gotten more than a few odd looks when he had walked with Kagome. It was a swift change from the welcome he had recieved when he was just a pup. He was almost relieved.

For all of the time he had been living in the forest, he had always feared the town. He had often wondered if they were actually going to come after him like they had threatened, and because of that he would hide in the house or around it, especially after the old man had left.

They never did come, but that didn't lessen his fear. He grew older, but he never got up the courage to leave the forest. He was afraid of their words and their brutality, and though he knew that he could probably take all of them on, it was their stinging remarks that hurt him most. They would strike where no wound could be covered over, and Inuyasha didn't want to face anymore isolatory torture over what they said, with no one to tell him that he was anything otherwise.

And he had fully expected something like that to happen today...

Only it hadn't, and he had gotten to do some things that he only dreamed of doing before because for an hour or two, he hadn't feared anyone. Inuyasha felt safe with Kagome, and in a way he almost knew that she wouldn't tolerate anyone saying anything about him or to him, if only because she hated to see anyone suffer.

Inuyasha wasn't sure if there was more to her friendliness and acceptance, but he was only going to depend on it when he had to, since he knew he still didn't completely trust Kagome yet either. Although he was strongly suspecting that the warm feeling that he had registered as 'love' the other night also implied a sort of trust too...

Inuyasha shook his head in order to avoid any complicated thinking for that night, and focused instead on the day behind him.

By almost all counts, his life had visibly improved, and he was very happy about it.

He had only read about walking with a girl, sitting with a girl, and having whatever that cold creamy stuff was with her. And now that he knew what it was like, he never wanted to go back to just imagining. He folded his arms beneath hid head and closed his eyes with an almost boyish smile on his face with a front fang slipping discreetly out.

The moon passed silently over the trees shedding a ghostly light on the boy, the wind playing sleepy games with his loose silver hair as he recounted things to himself in his absentminded content. And it was like that, that Inuyasha slipped into a sleepy dream, although his rest didn't last long...

It wasn't much later that Inuyasha heard the sounds of soft weeping, coming from the room below him. It was quiet, and if Inuyasha hadn't had superior senses, then he might not have noticed at all. He sat up and looked down at the surface of the roof he was reclining on as though he could see through the roof into her bedroom.

Inuyasha was only conflicted for a few seconds on whether to go and see if he couldn't stop her from crying anymore. He knew that she probably wanted to be alone. He had wanted to be alone too, a long time ago. But then no one had ever been there after, no one who wanted to try and understand. He knew Kagome would want someone to understand soon enough.

He wasn't sure where this sudden confidence was coming from; he could even scold himself to presume to know how Kagome was feeling. He had only known her for almost a week, and... Well, Kagome was complicated.

But maybe... Maybe Inuyasha didn't really understand her feelings. Her mom might have been a totally different person than his mother; and besides the fact, Kagome's grief was still fresh, while his was festering and old.

Inuyasha cringed as he imagined the look Kagome would have given him if she had heard him referring to himself with a word like festering...

He shook his head and tried not to think about the logic of going to her. It was going to be hard enough listening to her cry without tearing himself apart at the existence of her tears.

He lightly padded along the roof of the house with a feral grace and swung down to the open door. And he crept quietly to her room, glad for the closed door so that he wouldn't scare her in the darkness she was crying in.

"Kagome." He called gently, knocking and pressing an ear against the door.

The crying stopped abruptly with a hiccup, he heard her take a breath before answering him, "C-come in."

He stepped into the room tentatively, almost scared of her grief. Kagome sat up and smiled, sniffing and wiping the trails of tears away.

"Hi Inuyasha." She swallowed heavily.

"Hey." He nodded.

She looked at him for a moment dazedly before looking back down at her lap. She folded her hands over the book that lay spread open on her knees.

"I-I was just looking at our old photo album." Her voice trembled and she patted the bedding next to her, indicating he could sit down there. He took her hint and sat down, scooting next to her as she smiled her fragile smile.

"I love photo albums. They hold all of the memories that people forget after just a little bit of time." She whispered, almost bitterly.

Inuyasha didn't answer, and she continued, "It's like discovering the joy or the love or the fun of that day all over again, and realizing how precious those times really were, except you didn't realize it then, even though you should've." She frowned as she tried not to cry, Inuyasha squirmed where he sat.

"There's Daddy, before he died, and me as a little girl, I think I was six. I can't believe I ever wore something like that." She laughed distractedly and her shoulders shook. "Souta was just a little baby, two years old that day. We went to the theme park for his birthday, even though he couldn't ride any of the rides." She tilted the book slightly and looked up at Inuyasha for a second before bringing her eyes back down to the page.

"...And there's mom." She said softly.

Inuyasha took a deep breath and leaned closer to her so that he could easily glance the book over her shoulder. She leaned back against him slightly and took a steadying breath to continue.

"She was so happy that day. She smiled and laughed, and she made us all laugh too. Both me and mom made faces at Souta to make him laugh while Dad looked on. He was feigning embarrassment." A slight laugh bubbled in her body, Inuyasha could feel it, but it didn't come out as Kagome stared at her mother's smiling face. She reached out a trembling hand and traced her mothers outline on the page.

"I wish I could be there now." She said quietly, her voice thick with emotion that almost prevented the words from coming out. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared, numbed, at the page. Inuyasha gently put an arm around her and tugged her closer to him as she continued to stare. The book fell off of her lap and onto the floor, leaving Kagome with her feelings simmering inside of her.

She turned and leaned into his embrace, not questioning the implication, and not wondering what it meant that he was there with her now.

"I want to be there... When my family wasn't broken. I want to be where Souta and I don't have to live apart, where I can touch her, and then not take her for granted anymore. I want my mom, and my dad, and my grandpa..."

"I want my family..." She trailed off as it became too difficult to speak and keep her composure. She sobbed, and her words became cries of agony and frustration, sadness and loneliness; and soon Kagome was a mess all over again.

Inuyasha sat quietly, holding her almost awkwardly as she cried. In any normal circumstances, he would have just run away at this point of dangerous emotion. But he remembered... he remembered someone's arms around him after his mom had died. He had trusted the owner of those arms completely, and it was the only type of condolence he remembered receiving from that time...

It had made the biggest difference to him then.

And with that thought in his mind, he was glad that Kagome trusted him enough to cry with him there... He wanted to be that source of trust to her too, in the same way that someone else had so long ago to him.

She breathed and calmed a little, looking up at Inuyasha's sturdy expression; she looked down again, ashamed.

"I'm... sorry Inuyasha... ugh... I'm blubbering all over your shirt." She made a face at herself but laid her head on his chest anyway. He blushed slightly at the feel of her there. His heart beat rapidly, and the teary-eyed girl could hear it between her declining sniffles and sobs.

"I didn't mean to force you to be here, I'm sorry." She breathed.

"I wanted to be here." He spoke for the first time since he had come in.

"But if I hadn't been-"

"It's alright." He cut her off firmly, surprising even himself with his force.

She was silent for a moment, and although his words didn't ease her embarrassment, they helped a little bit. His heart still beat fast, and she listened to it for a moment, letting the sound of it occupy her mind with its steadiness. Her tears dried and she thought about their day together in the town, she remembered how easy it had been to be playful and cheerful while they were there, how easy it was to be like that with him...

"Inuyasha, thank you for today." She said quietly.

"Why?" He questioned.

"I had fun today. I forgot about a lot, and... I felt relaxed. I didn't remember all of this." She took a breath, "You've been helping me a lot lately, and it isn't just with the house..."

Inuyasha's heart beat faster, and he didn't know what to say.

"You... you've made me very happy. Happy enough to get away from all of this for a little while." Her voice was small and frail, making her sound more like a broken child than the strong young woman he knew that she could be.

"Kagome." He murmured, allowing himself to rest his chin on top of hers, feeling more complete than he had even an hour ago, even during the day with her.

"Thank you Inuyasha." She sniffed and looked up at him with a watery smile. He smiled back and looked her in the eye with a courage born of their newly attained understanding. Inuyasha grasped one of her hands and tugged it to his chest, holding it over his heart in a tender display of affection,

"I'm here for you, so don't doubt that." He chided softly as he looked down into her soft eyes. "I know that it feels terrible sometimes, especially when you're alone." He looked away momentarily and sighed, "I miss my mom sometimes too, even though she went a long time ago. So I know..." He trailed off as Kagome sighed in such a trusting way that he could only think that his words would only dampen the moment.

He knew that she had gotten the gist of things now...

(Chapter end)

Authors note: Well, another chapter finished, I'm very proud of myself. This took a long time to write and revise, I know, but I hope that all of you who read this story will enjoy this new addition. Things will be getting very serious soon plot wise, and if you notice, this isn't just another filler chapter. Some important things will be coming to light, and the plot will be speeding up pretty soon, depending on what I decide to do.

Anyway, I'd also like to announce that I'm going to rewrite Chapter 1. It's just a bit too far off from the rest of the chapters, and my writing style has changed enormously since I began this story. So keep a look out for it, because I know I'll be including some new juicy tidbits to... ahem... enrich the story (or just provide some sugary fluff to my lovely readers).

Read and Review!

STUNNING SONG LYRIC-

"The bailey beareth the bell away

The lily the rose

The rose I lay

The silver is white

Red is the gold

The silver is white

Red is the gold

How can I love when I am so young…"

-The lily and the rose

-a chorus song


End file.
